President Lai opens 2025 Taiwan Lantern Festival

Taoyuan, Feb. 12 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) on Wednesday opened the 2025 Taiwan Lantern Festival for the Year of the Snake in Taoyuan, lighting up this year's main lantern, "Infinite Paradise," near the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Taoyuan Station where the festivities are being held.

The 18-meter-tall lantern was designed by artist Akibo Lee (李明道), who merged the infinity symbol with geometric shapes to "create a futuristic theme park brimming with technological flair," according to the Tourism Administration and the Taoyuan City Government, which co-organized the event.

During the opening ceremony in the rain, Lai said that thanks to the collaboration between the central and local governments across Taiwan, the annual festival, which is held in a different city or county each year, has become a major attraction of the country, noting that foreign media has described it as "Disneyland without roller coasters."

In addition to the main lantern near the high-speed rail station, the Taoyuan City Government opened the "Lights Playground" event around the nearby Taoyuan Sports Park Metro Station on Feb. 7.

Both events will have light shows from 6-10 p.m. daily before concluding on Feb. 23. Lantern displays have also been set up in the city's 13 districts.

Meanwhile, in New Taipei's Pingxi District, Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) was joined by Kazuyuki Katayama, Japan's chief representative to Taiwan, and crowds as they released sky lanterns on this year's Lantern Festival, which marks the 15th day of the Lunar New Year and fell on Wednesday this year.

Despite the rainy weather, Hou and Katayama wrote well wishes on two large sky lanterns in the shape of a snake's head, before releasing them, according to the New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Department.

On Wednesday morning, in the coastal area of Yehliu in New Taipei, residents performed the annual Lantern Festival ritual of Yehliu Harbor purification, with worshippers carrying deities on palanquins jumping into the sea and then walking in bare feet on a pile of hot coal after they returned to land.

The century-old ritual has been performed to pray for fishermen to bring back a good catch and for their safe return, according to the North Coast & Guanyinshan National Scenic Area Headquarters.

In Kaohsiung, as of Tuesday, the southern port city's 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland event has recorded more than 5 million visits since it opened on the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday on Jan. 25, the city's Tourism Bureau said in a statement on Wednesday.

The wonderland stretches from the Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal in the south, across the Love River to the Pier-2 Art Center in the north, with local hotels seeing high occupancy rates ahead of Valentine's Day. It is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, according to the Kaohsiung City Tourism Bureau.